The Racer-class sloop was an 11-gun wooden screw sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 class of five ships built for the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 between 1855 and 1860.

Design

Built of a traditional wooden construction, the Racer class were a lengthened version of the Swallow-class sloop

Swallow class sloop

The Swallow-class sloop was an 9-gun wooden screw sloop class of four ships built for the Royal Navy between 1854 and 1857.-Design:Built of a traditional wooden construction, the Swallow class were intended as "type of screw vessel below the Cruizer".The class were armed with a single 32-pounder...

, which in turn had been intended as "type of screw vessel below the Cruizer

Cruizer class sloop

The Cruizer class was a class of 17-gun wooden screw sloops built for the Royal Navy between 1852 and 1856, comprising six vessels.-Design:...

". The extra length gave greater speed, and combined with a considerable increase in power, this gave a speed of about 10 knots (19.6 km/h), rather more than the 7 knots of the previous class.

The class were armed with a single 32-pounder gun (58cwt) gun on a pivot mount and ten 32-pounder (25cwt) carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s on the broadside. These guns were all smoothbore muzzle-loading, and were little changed from the standard guns of Nelson's era.

Propulsion was provided by a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine developing 461 ihp and driving a single screw. At maximum power under steam, top speed was about 10 knots (19.6 km/h). A barque rig

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

 of sails was carried, which meant the ships of the class had three masts with a square rig on the fore and main masts.

Ships

The first three ships were ordered on 3 April 1854, although both Cordelia and Gannetwere ordered as Swallow-class sloops, with the design being changed before construction. Icarus was ordered on 3 February 1855 and Pantaloon was ordered on 1 April 1857.

Name	Ship Builder	Laid down	Launched	Fate
	Pembroke Dockyard	October 1855	3 July 1856	Sold for breaking on 12 May 1870
	Deptford Dockyard	1 October 1856	4 November 1857	Broken up in 1876
	Pembroke Dockyard	December 1856	29 December 1857	Broken up in February 1877
	Deptford Dockyard	7 April 1857	22 October 1858	Sold for breaking on 23 January 1875
	Devonport Dockyard HMNB Devonport Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...	2 November 1857	26 September 1860	Sold for breaking on 18 September 1867